


Dreams and Pirates

by Chikabow



Series: Childhood Summer Stories [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Gen, chenle is 10, they're cousins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 08:29:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14712650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chikabow/pseuds/Chikabow
Summary: Chenle really wants to go see the boats down by the beach.





	Dreams and Pirates

“Ge, take me to see the boats!” Chenle tugged at Taeil’s arm.

 

Taeil’s aunt had sent Chenle over to Korea for summer. Usually, his parents would look over Chenle, but they decided that they themselves deserved a week of vacations abroad. This left Taeil as the sole caretaker of the ten year old.

 

Now, Taeil loved his cousin. He was a source of energy in that slow village where the summer days seemed excessively long and action extremely scarce. But with that being said, taking care of such a young kid by himself wasn’t something he was either comfortable or looking forward to do.

 

Taeil lowered the book he was reading to face his little cousin.

 

“The boats?” He questioned, noticing Chenle’s sailor hat. Where had he gotten that?

 

“Yes, ge. The boats on the beach! I want to go see them!”

 

“Ok, I guess. We can go for a walk to the beach. I’ve read this book before.”

 

Chenle exclaimed a celebratory ‘yeah’ and ran upstairs. He quickly came back with a cloth bag slung over his shoulder. Taeil put on his shoes and told his cousin to do the same, who, in the middle of all his excitement, forgot to do it. He messily put on his flip-flops and opened the door, escaping outside. Taeil picked up his wallet and the keys from the hall table and followed suit.

 

“Why do you want to go see the boats?” Taeil asked extending his hand to hold Chenle’s.

 

The younger one complied. He smiled at the question.

 

“I love boats and pirates and sea monsters! I want to be a sailor when I grow up and go on adventures!”

 

“Really?” Taeil asked genuinely surprised. He didn’t know of his cousin’s affinity for sea-related things. Usually when Chenle came to Korea and visited them, they were with their parents and didn’t spend much more than a day together. This was the first opportunity they had to get to know each other.

 

“Yes, ge!” He let go of his older cousin’s hand and started rummaging through his bag. Taeil looked up and down the road, and the usual lack of movement assured him Chenle would be safe on his own.

 

“Look! I brought this!” He showed off blue and white binoculars and handed them to Taeil. He stopped and took a look through them. They were clearly play binoculars, and what they lacked in quality, they probably made up in cost.

 

About the size of a typical fishermen’s village, it was nested between sea and the hills. From there, he could see the waves crashing on the sand and the trail up in the hills leading to the lighthouse.

 

Taeil handed the binoculars back to Chenle and he put them back in the bag. He then showed a collection of little pebbles in a pouch.

 

“I get one from every beach I visit! They’re all special; I’ll use them to mark the beaches I’ve visited on my ship.”

 

“Your ship? What is it like?” Taeil asked, genuinely curious about how Chenle imagined his ship.

 

“I don’t have one yet, ge, but when I grow up I will have a very big ship. It’ll be just like a pirate ship with big sails and a crow’s nest to use the binoculars!”

 

“Wow…”

 

They resumed walking slowly. Chenle foraged the pouch for pebbles to show his cousin. As he saw fit, he gave them to Taeil for him to see. Taeil would ask him where they came from. Phuket, Qingdao, Jeju, Okinawa and so on. Just how well-travelled Chenle was surprised Taeil.

 

“And this one? I think it’s the prettiest yet,.” Taeil asked, holding a reddish almost perfectly round pebble.

 

“You think so? It’s my favourite too! I got it when we went to Hainan. It was such a nice place. I made a friend there. He was from Jilin. We had a lot of fun and played together every day on the beach.”

 

The road was not too long, but it was enough for Chenle to show the other contents of his explorer’s bag. Soon enough, they reached the seawall. A big stretch of sand outlined the entire coast. However, the beach at the village was cut off by two breakwaters. Near the south one lay the objective of that trip. Various small boats populated the sand, anchors firmly encroached in the sand. From the looks of it, the tide was at its lowest point. When the sea level rose, those ships would be afloat.

 

“Look, ge!  So many little ships! Let’s go!” Chenle held his bag tightly and and grabbed Taeil's hand with his other. He guided them down the stairs to the sand,Taeil’s warning of caution ignored. Chenle’s careless running made his flip-flops throw sand everywhere. Taeil considered asking his cousin to stop running because the sand he lifted found its way into Taeil’s sneakers. He decided against it. His old, worn out sneakers weren’t worth the killjoy.

 

As they got closer, Chenle let go of Taeil’s hand again and began inspecting the boats up closely. They were mostly very small, two-person boats. Well, one person considering the fisherman would bring supplies with him and they’d take up space. Some had lively colours and looked ready to face the waves, others had their colours faded and the wood withered by the salt and sun.

 

They weren’t by any means impressive vessels, but Chenle was just as excited as if he was seeing a freighter or a warship.

 

He approached an intricately decorated boat. One could see it was handpainted. The colours were vivid and melted into each other to depict various flowers.

 

“Ge! Look how pretty this one is!”

 

“You like it, lad?” A coarse, raspy voice sounded from behind them.

 

The cousins, surprised, turned around to see a man holding fishing equipment. Taeil couldn’t really put an age to the man. His hair was grey and his skin tanned. He was well built, but he seemed tired. Still, he bore a smile.

 

Quickly getting over the scare, Chenle answers promptly.

 

“Yes, sir! It’s so pretty! Is it yours?”

 

“Yes it is. I was just about to take her for a ride.” The man said showing what he was holding

 

“Oh. I wanna go! I wanna go too!” Chenle exclaimed. The fisherman laughed and looked at Taeil.

 

Taeil, with the mounting stress from Chenle’s self-invitation into a stranger’s boat, quickly tried to take action.

 

“Chenle! You can’t just go into stranger’s boats like that!” Taeil reprimanded.

 

“Why not? The seas are calm! That’s perfect for sailing!” Chenle argued back, completely missing the point.

 

“That they are. You seem to know some things about the sea.” The fisherman observed. “One day, you’ll make a fine sailor, I’m sure of that. But now you should listen to your hyung.”

 

Taeil wanted to thank the man for his cooperation in putting a stop to Chenle’s crazy ideas.

 

“Do you wanna go get some ice cream?” Taeil offered, as some kind of consolation prize. “We can go get it and come back here to eat it and see if we find any pretty pebbles to add to your collection.”

 

The offer perked up Chenle’s spirits. He still tried to look bitter over not being able to go sail but Taeil could see it was just a front at that point.

 

“I guess that’s ok too, ge.”

 

Chenle waved at the fisherman and he waved back.

 

“Have a safe trip, sir!”

 

“Thank you, lad. Take care of your hyung. Don’t give him too much trouble.”

 

Chenle laughed and hugged Taeil’s waist.

 

Taeil made a quick apology, and they were off in the search of ice cream and pretty pebbles.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and tell me what you think!
> 
> My friend drew fanart for this fic! Check her awesome work out! https://twitter.com/suwaseok/status/998315959436939264


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